


Dual

by ardett



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Eventual Relationships, Galaxy Garrison, Longing, M/M, Parallels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2019-04-28 00:25:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14437461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ardett/pseuds/ardett
Summary: Keith is here. Shiro is not. The universe does not align.





	Dual

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for the [Between Two Points Sheith zine](https://twitter.com/betweentwopoint?lang=en) forever ago, and I'm pretty pleased with it, other than a rather rushed ending. I actually collabed with [trasshess](http://trasshess.tumblr.com/) and when and if they post their art for this piece, I'll link it :)

I.

Keith remembered the Garrison with fondness. Those were idyllic days, when the sun was hung high in the sky and the shale was always hot against the soles of his shoes. He remembered the squares of sky outside classroom windows, the sigh of summer’s breath ghosting between the cracks. There were the whiteboards, the tests, the simulator trials, yes, but that was not what he remembered when he looked back on his Garrison days.

He remembered waiting for Shiro after his exams, arms slung over the sides of courtyard benches and head tilted to the endless blue. He remembered hiding in patches of shade, texting Shiro with his cell screen bright.

What Keith remembered with fondness was not the Garrison walls nor the lonely dorms, but Shiro.

 

.I

What Shiro remembered of the Garrison was not pleasant. Perhaps because it was not the Garrison he remembered but leaving it. He could never forget the heartbreak on Keith's face, the way the tears dried off his skin in the heat and the way his dry voice cracked.

He had always yearned to explore space but he would have stayed. He would have stayed for Keith if he had known how long that goodbye would last.

 

II.

When Shiro disappeared, the hardest part was being alone. Even on cool nights when the moon washed the world monochrome, Keith could not find peace.

In the absence of a hand to hold, a person to embrace, Keith’s hands found other ways to occupy themselves. He grew used to the feeling of sticky ink on his fingers, of callouses from pressing so many tacks into the wall. He began to forget the feeling of human warmth on his skin.

The one thing he never forgot was Shiro.

 

.II

There were things Shiro had to forget in that arena to survive. What it took to live was a weapon, an endless aggression, and a body without a heart. So Shiro left his own behind in that dusty, bloody pit.

He let go of all he knew of happiness and forgot Keith.

 

III.

There’s not enough time for them to talk in the whirlwind that is becoming team Voltron. Keith understands the safety of the universe comes before catching up. What kills him is that Shiro won’t even look at him. He has never seen those dark eyes slide right over him like he’s still some sort of desert mirage.

It feels more like losing Shiro than his time alone in the desert ever did.

 

.III

Shiro thinks of all he was on Earth and all he was in that arena. He wanted to be more than a friend. Now he thinks he will never be more than a champion.

 

IV.

They’ve camped out on a friendly planet for the night. The atmosphere is altered here by great gaseous clouds that absorb light from the stars and glow like firefly lanterns. Their radiance casts soft shadows of lilac and mint across Shiro’s face as he sits by the water’s edge.

Keith comes to sit beside him. (The churn of the ocean is somehow so similar to the rise and fall of desert dunes but Keith swears that this is where things change.)

“Shiro?”

Shiro hums noncommittally, gaze flickering to Keith before returning to the illuminated waves. Keith thinks about grabbing Shiro’s hand, intertwining their fingers, making up for all those lost moments and all the moments he never had the courage to initiate, but Shiro’s fingers are buried in the sand. Keith loses his nerve.

He starts to leave as his eyes begin to sting.

“Wait, Keith.”

 

.IV

The moment Keith turns around takes Shiro’s breath away. The clouds’ light plays along Keith’s violet irises and glints off welling tears.

Shiro can’t imagine a world where he doesn’t love Keith. It’s so simple to see in Keith’s beautiful, hopeful eyes, in Keith’s small and sad smile. It’s so easy to remember all the reasons he loved him.

When everything they knew was so changed, when he himself wasn’t the same person even in flesh, he had thought his feelings wouldn’t be the same. And yet…

Another world, another time, but how could he not fall for Keith again and again?

“Keith,” he whispers again. He holds out a hand and Keith hesitates before taking it.

“Shiro,” Keith begins. “I know it’s not the time, not with Voltron and Zarkon and the whole universe, but it wasn’t the time before you went on the Kerberos mission either and I regretted not telling you then. I don’t want to lose you again without telling you.” Keith fidgets with their hands, lacing their fingers together over and over again. “We’ve always been close but for me… You’ve been more than just a friend to me. And I really- I don’t want you to keep shutting me out because I... I think I’ve been in love with you for a long time.”

Keith’s tears gleam and Shiro wipes them away. “I wanted to tell you before Kerberos.” Shiro can feel the delicate rise and fall of Keith’s listening body. Shiro swallows thickly, continuing, “I thought it wouldn’t be fair to you, not when I was leaving. I swore I would tell you when I saw you again. I didn’t mean to break that promise. I loved you then, Keith, and I love you still.”

Keith surges up to kiss him and Shiro complies, kissing him back sweetly. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees a muted glow, one that emanates from Keith’s chest with the fuzzy outline of his lungs and halos his heart. “Cloud swallower,” Shiro teases. He feels Keith smile against his lips. He might be imagining it, but Shiro thinks everything glows a little brighter.


End file.
